Sunday, March 25, 2012

Cleveland's Sidaway Suspension Bridge, Sunday, March 25, 2012

[I encourage you to click on pictures below to enlarge them and to refer to three earlier blogs on the Sidaway Bridge, two in January and a much larger one from September of last year.][While the following is the sure sign of a long-time historian, most of the text here was enlarged on Jan. 18, 2018, as I prepared to issue a blog on revisiting the area under the bridge in these last two weeks.In terms of clarity/aesthetics, I tried to enlarge picture captions but was unable to do so and could not figure out why.]Today, for the first time, I went from one end of the Sidaway Suspension Bridge to the other, down through the little valley underneath it and not ON the bridge as I hope many people will do again one day. I had gone underneath it for the first time on a cold, snowy January 2 as I noted in one of my earlier blogs, but not all the way across to the southside bluff.Looking up, the view, not surprisingly, was likely to be almost exactly the same as at the beginning of this year, but here it is once again, for documentary and promotional purposes of course (offer not void or prohibited!)....

looking towards the north pier, still identifiable as with last Summer by a bird's nest in an upper-left "wedge"; a portion of homes on Anita Kennedy Drive is visible in the right center

looking towards the south pier

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Aside from those powerful lines, I think that what you could see and hear without the white covering of my first time in the "valley" was both more ugly and more beautiful this time, in its respective reality and potential.

The early Spring view next to and near the bridge, a mix in part of brown, green and blooming, included some tires and other large debris going down to and beyond the north pier, but it was more so a jungle of often brittle and easily breakable branches, feeling harmless but contributing to bridge corrosion by the minute, and seen here by the base of the north pier....

The view close to the south pier and on the hill above it quickly grew TIREd, as I had seen when it was coated in white close to three months ago, but not with the fuller force I noted today, in its potentially hazardous array....

possibly toxic but definitely linked with a putrid puddle...

and also part of an easy path to the top of the "south hill", with vistas (sparing a comprehensive modeling of these sexy curves, even though I know you all enjoy this) from here....

looking uphill, partly to the street signs for 67th and Sidaway dimly visible in the upper center

to here....

heading towards the top of an easy if sometimes lumpy path, with part of the bridge's south side visible to the upper left

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to the top, visible straight ahead on Sidaway Avenue, with a part of the former Dan-Dee Potato Chip buildings in the background....[Footnote 1.]

And as easy as it was to make it to the top, it was easy today to see and hear the potential here, and hopefully not difficult for you, partly through the earlier possibilities I have suggested.

This is alternately a scruffy and disgusting landscape, but cleaning it up - assuming the political will will be there - is not rocket science, since it has been done elsewhere. Besides whatever money will be necessary, imagine all the hours of volunteer clean-ups (with at least one participant right here), the singing birds you could hear today, the urban sounds and sights nearby of the skyline and Rapid trains, and a well-designed, renovated, overarching landmark, and you have taken one of the first steps.

Footnotes

Footnote 1. At this moment [as the size of the text grows before my eyes😆, I have to honestly say I may have to eat a lot of potato chips, or not, as the buildings in the last photo are probably not that of the ex-Dan Dee company, but I hope to clean up this un-savory mistake in the near future. - Jan. 18, 2018.]